Filtering by Category: In the press

I became pretty miserable in my last job and for years I dreamed of changing careers but it took a while to work out what would be right for me. 2017 was my first year of working full time at Pipley after I finally quit my job in March.

This month Psychologies Magazine have a focus on changing careers and my story is featured alongside other ladies who took the leap.

It was great to get a bit of pampering for a change on the day of the shoot, the only unfortunate thing was the time of year as the flower farm wasn’t in its full glory for the photos.

My journey into flower farming started with a one day course and I now run something similar myself, so if you are a budding flower farmer have a look on the workshops page at Flower Farming for beginners…maybe it could be the start of something special for you too!

Looking smart on the flower farm for a change...no combat trousers or wellies here ;)

Yesterday was a little different... I normally do my very best to avoid the rush hour traffic in Bristol but I found myself driving up to Clifton armed with a bouquet of flowers and a Christmas wreath (yes I know it's way too early!)

The reason for this was an appearance on BBC Radio Bristol for their weekly Try it Tuesday feature on Laura Rawlings show (no relation to me by the way)

I was very nervous about it all but once I got to the studio Becky who produces the show was ever so friendly and totally put me at ease so by the time I went through to sit with Laura I felt much more confident about it all.

We discussed Pipley generally and how I came to do what I do now, and then I spoke for a little while about how to make a Christmas wreath. The whole thing went really well and I've had some lovely feedback from people who listened. I totally forgot to take any pictures but here are some of the bouquet and wreath I took in with me.

I've recently received images from this photoshoot I was involved with in April which is featured in the current edition of Vow Magazine.

Linda Thomas contacted me a few months ago after I worked with her last year and she was looking for flowers for this shoot focusing on some of her dresses. The brief was for an oversized bouquet with trail to the floor but she wanted the feel to be very natural and organic. The trail was to be loose and have lots of movement and colours to be green and white.

This was quite different to any bouquet I had made before but I could tell it was my kind of thing and apparently Linda also felt I was the lady for the job.

The shoot took place in late April and I had a plan in mind of various flowers I wanted to use. Unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan as we were hit by a very late frost which destroyed many of the flowers and foliage I had planned to use a couple of days before the shoot.

What I was left with was a very limited selection and I normally like to have a few extra flowers as a fall back in case of breakages etc but in this case I ended up using pretty much everything. I was planning to use some lovely hops as part of the trail but this too was damaged by the frost and in this case I had to buy in some Jasmine plants to use in their place which also meant a bit more wiring than anticipated.

These are some of the struggles we have to get used to as growers but in the end I'm really happy with how the flowers turned out and I'm spoilt for choice with the images as there are so many gorgeous ones to choose from!